1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and particularly to an electrical connector having a dielectric spacer.
2. Description of the Related Art
A dielectric spacer is usually provided in an electrical connector for alignment of electrical contacts of the electrical connector so that tails of the electrical contacts can be correctly inserted into corresponding holes in a printed circuit board on which the electrical connector is mounted. As is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,601,438 and 5,709,556, each of most spacers used with the electrical connectors includes a plate with several through-holes therein and fastened to an insulative housing of the electrical connector by means of retaining latch devices generally positioned at two ends of the plate. The retaining latch devices of the dielectric spacer and structures formed on the insulative housing to correspond to the retaining latch devices are always complicatedly constructed for ensuring a mechanical retention therebetween. For general electrical connectors whose dimensions are not so small, those structures are acceptable.
However, some electrical connectors have very small dimensions and either insulative housings or dielectric spacers of the electrical connectors are so tiny that it is nearly impossible to form such complicated latch structures.
So-called floating spacers as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,116,917, which are not retained to the insulative housings of the electrical connectors, have been proposed to solve the above problems and they do, to some extent, work in many applications. Nevertheless, the tails of the electrical contacts of the electrical connector are often bent with respect to contact portions of the electrical contacts before inserting into the through holes of the spacers. These bent tails are subject to residual stress and subsequent stress relaxation problems which tend to move the tails of the electrical contacts together with the floating spacers, thereby adversely affecting the positioning of the tails with respect to the holes of the printed circuit board. Therefore, an improved electrical connector is desired.
A major object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector having a dielectric spacer which has simplified latching structures with respect to an insulative housing of the electrical connector to reliably ensure positions of tails of electrical contacts of the electrical connector.
An electrical connector in accordance with the present invention comprises an insulative housing, a plurality of electrical contacts, a pair of dielectric spacers, a pair of latches and a pair of boardlocks. The latches and the boardlocks are assembled to the insulative housing. The insulative housing defines a receiving slot and the electrical contacts are received in the insulative housing to expose to the receiving slot. The insulative housing comprises a pair of end blocks and an intermediate block each formed with means for retaining the dielectric spacers therebetween.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.